Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

Delta Dagger: 1970

This is Hamilton AFB in Marin County, California in 1970 and the airplane is a visiting Convair F-102 "Delta Dagger" interceptor belonging to the Idaho Air National Guard. Note the air intakes have been papered-over to keep hot dog wrappers, pop cans and various other airshow debris from damaging the engine when the pilot cranks up to fly home. It's too bad my mother didn't have a better camera. Almost every photo she took with her Instamatic 110 was off-center to the right! View full size.

I saw a fellow toss some garbage into the rear of a German Tornado strike fighter at a Houston air show. Most of these come equipped - like this F-102 - with intake and exhaust covers because their are idiots out there at air shows. A very nice pic, nothing beast the six 'century series' aircraft.

This photo brings back memories of my struggles with assembling model airplanes; as I recall, the Aurora F-102 kit was the first model I ever purchased, and I remember buying a Superboy comic (#91, with a cover date of September, 1961) the same day. The cover date of the comic book suggests June, 1961 as the approximate time of that memorable (to me) purchase. I was then between the second and third grades, and living in Sabine Pass, Texas.

Making models demanded skills I never could develop, and as I look at this great photo, all I can think of is my pitiful attempt to get those decals nicely placed on the sides of the fuselage. Luckily for me, the silver-colored plastic meant I didn't have to paint the darn thing.

My uncle was coming to visit us and he flew these planes in the Air Force at that time; I wanted to surprise him with a model of the plane he flew. I can't remember his reaction to my completed model, but I'm certain he was gracious about it!

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.